Rowsey’s vision and other notes

Photo by Anthony Giacomino/ Paint Touches

It’s easy to get carried away with observations and analysis after one game, so I’ll keep this brief, but I do think there were a couple of points that are worth highlighting and will translate against Purdue and beyond. 

• When national outlets talked about Marquette going into the season, the focus was almost always on Markus Howard. And after a historically great freshman campaign, every word was necessary. But lost in that shuffle was just how good Andrew Rowsey looked in his first season with the Blue and Gold. After one game (and one scrimmage without him on the floor), it’s not a stretch to say Rowsey is the catalyst of the offense. I wouldn’t have him at MVP level quite yet, just because 95% of his impact comes on one end of the floor, but I wouldn’t scoff at an argument on his behalf.
• Rowsey finished with 23 points, 5 assists and 3 steals in 26 minutes, and wasn’t even that great from the floor, going 7-16, including 3-8 from behind the arc. More eye-popping than those numbers was his usage rate of 41%, the most in his Marquette tenure and tied for a career high.
• That production on such a high volume netted him a No. 4 spot on KenPom’s Player of the Year standings. (Again, this is ridiculously early, so don’t go hanging any banners, this just puts into a national context how impressive he was.

• Jay Bilas was also impressed.

• The thing that stood out for me was how well he was reading teammates, and putting them in beneficial situations. He had one assist wiped out in the second half on a phantom offensive foul in the fast break, and didn’t get rewarded with assists on either of the plays below, but the process was even more successful than results, which is a great sign of things to come.
• On this possession, Rowsey is already lining up the pass before Howard has even left the paint.
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• If you can give Bad Boy that much space to work with, this team will be putting up a lot of points. (Howard passed this 3 for a mid range-2 for unkown reasons.)
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• The next possession, Marquette once again runs Howard of a baseline screen. Rowsey spots him the whole way, but look how early he starts to dish it.
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• The Hauser screen is a nice touch too. And even though Howard missed this, he got fouled in the process and scored 3 the old fashioned way.
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• Just to touch back on a point we made last week, on 6 of Howard’s 9 shooting possessions, the immediate pass preceding the shot came from Rowsey. Of those 6, 5 came with Howard running off a screen into a spot-up shot behind the arc. Marquette scored 6 points off of those 5 possessions, with Howard making one 3, missing 2 treys, missing a 2-pointer, and getting fouled on another one. This is going to be the bread and butter, I’ll be tracking this all season.  
• I really liked having Sacar Anim and Haanif Cheatham on the floor together for defensive purposes. I don’t know how often we’ll see it, as this means one of Howard/Rowsey/Hauser won’t be on the floor, but with a lead in late game situations, they will be no-doubters. 
• I really didn’t like Haanif and Sacar as primary ball handlers late in the 2nd half when the game was in hand and the freshmen were getting some burn. These two played well as 3rd/4th options, let’s keep it that way.
•  Nothing says welcome back to the college season like a horrible charge call. 

• Welcome back!